Monday, June 7, 2010

My Backyard Bubbler!!

I wrote a post last week on simple water features that you can put in your backyard, here. Over ten years ago we made a bubbler in our backyard. It all started when I watched an HGTV show of a home in New Mexico. In their foyer they had a small water fall going into a stream and there was a beautiful bronze statue of an Indian Maiden dipping her toe in the stream. My wheels started turning! Obviously I could not afford a bronze statue or large water feature but I could do something on a small scale. Here is my little bubbler……….

I found the little statue,(which is actually black, but when wet, he reflects the blue of the sky) at a little garden boutique shop in my town. We named him Little Jimmy. When you have grandchildren all statues that have a face must have a name!! It is hard to see the water bubbling up in a picture, but it is bubbling and gurgling and making a wonderful sound.

Let me show you some more pictures……….

In this picture you can see how Little Jimmy sits in the planter. The planter is only 27” deep and lines the patio and back side of my house. You will also notice one of my old wrought iron pieces. I actually have five placed on the wall throughout the planter as a backdrop for the plants and also for some of the vines to grow on.

You can see another wrought iron piece to the right of it. I am letting a little bit of ivy grow to cover just a small portion of the back wall behind the Mother fern. Since the backyard is so warm I like this nice shady area for ferns and shade loving plants. I use whites and pinks and a little blue to go with the color of the house and the cobalt window box and shutters.

This is to the right of the bubbler. The Japanese Maple has done so well in this over-sized cobalt pot. I added a wrought iron crane for another punch of black. Among the rocks I also have some stone globes as seen next to the pot. You can catch a glimpse of another wrought iron gate to the right of the maple. I have a pink camellia and another fern at the very end of the planter.

We enjoy sitting out here in the evenings. This is just one of three wicker chairs. I am on the hunt for a couple of new toss pillows for the back. I really like the cobalt with the cream. I am thinking seriously about ordering some custom cushions from the company I got my front porch cushions from.

This is to the very left of the bubbler. You can see a cobalt gazing globe and another black wrought iron fence on which the jasmine can grow onto. This is under my kitchen window and there is a heavenly fragrance coming in my window. I add little patches of rock to break up the plants and the dirt. It adds another texture to the flower bed.

This jasmine is grabbing onto the gate. It is like it reached out as far as it could to grab on. Nature is amazing!!

This is the little fairy garden in the green pot that I made with my granddaughter. I will show you the dinosaur garden I made with my grandsons in another post. These are really fun projects to do with children and I love having them in my yard. You can see the fairy garden here.

I think you can see the water splashing on the rocks in this image. This is so easy to make and it literally took a couple of hours to do. Obviously the plants have grown and the baby tears has filled in nicely so that adds to the finished look. Let me tell you how we did it.

We bought an approximately 14” round wash tub that was about 6-8” deep and a small pump from Home Depot. We placed a piece of metal screen on top of the wash tub with a whole for the water pipe to poke through. Make sure you cut the screen bigger than the width of the tub so it can lay on the ground around the tub. We placed rocks to secure the screen on the ground. Added river rock , filled it with water and plugged it in!! Instant bubbler. We added the ground cover and other small boulders to make a little haven for Little Jimmy. Put a rock in his hand so he looked as if he was dipping into the little pond to get rocks. I also placed a light that hangs over the bubbler so at night we can see it. I purchased the light at the San Francisco Garden show.

So there you have my little bubbler!! I hope this inspires you to do one for your yard. As you can see if you have a flower bed that is even just 2ft or so deep you can have one too. The actual cost of just the bubbler without plants, statue and light is less than $25.

25 comments:

Oh, Kathysue! This is just lovely...so peaceful and lush! Is this where you have your morning coffee? I don't remember seeing this part of your yard before! Hope you had a great weekend!...hugs...Debbie

Kathysue, that is so pretty. I love how all the plants just fit around Little Jimmy just so. Thanks for telling me that the weed growing in all the wet places of our backyard is called baby tears. Your Japanese maple is just like mine except mine is planted in the ground. I guess I will need to make fairy gardens some day for the grands.

AWE great job!!! - i love it - i'm ALLLL about water features! - i want a coy (sp) pond in my hard - b/c i have a lot of stray cats in the neighbordhood - and putting an ugly fance ontop of it - is NOT my goal ..

We need "sound-a-vision"! I thought I'd like spending time on your front porch, but heck, when you have a back area as lovely as this, why would you ever go anywhere else! So pretty. It's been over 95 for the last 2 weeks here with no rain....that lushness that you enjoy just ain't happening here! I'll live vicariously!Have a great week, Kathysue.www.divinedistractions.blogspot.com

What a pretty garden. Jimmy looks as though he is planning some mischief down there...I think I would keep an eye on him if I were you!!!!! What care you have put into all this, you make me feel quite guilty. xo

Such a pretty garden you have! We have some old fencing but we use it to section off the patio instead of in the gardens. Your little bubbler looks perfectly at home. Since we cannot plant in some areas of the front garden due to old tree roots some parts of the garden look a bit odd. This would be so darling. Now if only we had an outdoor outlet!

Hi Kathysue! I tried leaving a comment at 4:30AM CST but BLOGGER was DOWN in my area until nearly 4PM!! Now I'm back in the saddle and had to come back and let you know what a great post this is. Love how you even use your COLOR SPOTS out in the yard ~ and in my new fave color, COBALT blue! Must be so peaceful to sit out there with the water and the blues and greens....LOVELY.xx Suzanne

OH, I just love it! What a great backyard you have. Those cobalt blue shutters are just so fun. I was thinking about making some of my own shutters & I think I will now. I've got to paint them a fun color to accent my new deck space. I just love your bubbler & everything that you have with it. How fun! I may have to incorporate a water feature on the deck too, maybe just a small tabletop fountain for now. Oh, the ferns & all the lovely ground cover you have is just beautiful. I adore Confederate jasmine & must plant some here. I had it in GA & it smells heavenly. You cannot kill that stuff.

I'm working on my deck & it's really coming along. Hope to post it next week. I've got to get some shutters. I love how yours pop against the house!

Love your back garden, especially loving the old wrought iron pieces you've placed about. I'm sure the sound emanating from Little Jimmy is the perfect sound to complete this beautiful and relaxing oasis you've created for yourself and your family to enjoy all summer and indian summer long!!!You put so much thought into everything you do and it shows in spades!!!Thank you so much for your thoughts, well wishes and love this past weekend, it meant so much!!!So you were in LA? Let's catch up this week!!!LOVE,me

Your garden is so lovely Kathysue -- I'm so jealous!!! The cobalt blue pot is really fantastic...going to send these pictures to my landscaper who is currently coming up with a design plan for our very barren yard.